-15 BELOW-MORE SNOW-FROZEN PIPES-DEEP LITTER METHOD FOR CHICKEN COOPS

21022015

GREETINGS

Last night was brutal, and this morning I had a burst hot water pipe. I had left the water running too. Ice dams abound on the house. The picture below is of the back of the house where ice always collects in the winter. David had to come over and dig out my dryer vent I had dug it out from the last storm but the winds put 2 foot drifts over it and the snow was piled up against the door out. I will have to put a board there or something next year.

The dryer vent is between those two windows

MORE SNOW

Up to 8 inches is expect from noon today to noon tomorrow. SOme parts of Massachusetts may get rain at the end they say not here and I truly hope so or there will be flooding in the barn. This has been a wild winter. Chris has got the sand bags up in the back and I hope today I can place them so the big melt from the mountain won’t enter the barn.

Chris

Chris left yesterday and by this time today he should be ice fishing on Dudley Pond with his friend Alex. Good luck. He finished cleaning the barn and brought those heavy sand bags up to the back of the barn. Thanks Chris.

The plumber came. Its’s a two-man job something he did last year so he did a quick fix and then he will be back on MOnday. But later in the day when I went to refresh the chickens water I found that I had no water in the house. My Son will see if its something I didn’t turn on or he put a fix on the whole system. I need water to run the boiler so if it’s the later he will have to come back.

DEEP LITTER METHOD

I put new shavings in and then covered them with a good layer of straw. Everyday I will turn under the straw and add more as needed. I tried this once before but used hay as recommended. It really didn’t work well as hay gets wet easily and it made a stinky mess.. Straw is much better for this deep method and will compost nicely.

Many thanks for reading my blog on this snowy day. I hope you have a wonderful day. Carole

Eliza
Things are back to normal here on the farm. The pipes were finally fixed last night by my oil company and everything is working. Its beautiful day nd we didn’t get the rain so I am a happy camper. The sheep think its spring and are jumping around in the snow. I will get to the sandbags this afternoon and hopefully get some rug hooking done. Thanks for your kind thoughts. Hope all is well at your house.

We got another foot last night as well. Ice dams , drifts…overwhelming here too. I feel for you with that water problem.. Hope it is resolved for you soon . Geez, this winter is a real LuLu. Thank goodness, we are nearing the end. Best Wishes!!!

The water problem was fixed last night by my oil company. I have heat and hot and cold water. What a delight. We only got about 6 inches but I live on the backside of a mountain so we always get less than most of Colrain. It has been a tough winter and I am making lists of things I need to do over the summer to make it easier next year.Its a beautiful day and I will get the sandbags situated today. The sheep were out early this morning frolicking around and the chickens are enjoying their new straw and shavings deep bedding. Hope all is well and I hope this bout of bitter cold will be the last of the year. Thanks for your good wishes Cynthia.

Glad your water is back… Amazing how good it feels when faced with the prospect of going without it for awhile! It was a beautiful day.. That is all relative too, I’m thinking. Fun to watch the sheep and the chickens! This harsh weather could mean an early Spring